Anyone ever written a play?

I quite like the idea and think I could do decent dialogue, but barring just starting typing I wondered if anyone here has written one? Any tips? I did co write a musical at college but mainly did the music/lyrics with another bloke, bar the odd line.

Comments

Hi Twang, I think you know I’ve done a bit of writing here and there. I had some stuff performed in Edinburgh many years ago and have written shorter sketches and gags for radio and publication. Happy to help/give any guidance I can if nobody else steps up.

I’ve written, or co-written a couple of plays albeit for a specific purpose – people in jail mostly. I’d suggest you first ask yourself why you’re writing it.
Do you want to entertain, raise an issue, give people a laugh or is just a writing exercise?
(There doesn’t have to be a reason but even if there isn’t a specific one, that’s a reason in itself.)
Issues about staging, sets and the complications of working with a lot of actors can be addressed to some extent by making it a piece for voices – like a radio play, which will give you some idea of how it sounds, crucial since the audience are hearing rather than seeing or reading it.
If you initially make it a voices play then you also have the advantage of recording it yourself which will help you work out the pace, the rhythm and the language. Taping and then listening to it is low cost and highly effective – you can always adapt it later.
Another plus is the opportunity for sound effects which means you can justifiably get out the coconut shells.
Good luck with it anyway.

I’ve written short radio sketches too. It’s worth a visit to the BBC Writers Room site http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom where you’ll find an archive of scripts for radio plays and TV dramas so you can get an idea of how they’re put together.

I wrote a handful of screenplays as a project in collaboration with a friend in 2003. We failed to get any optioned but we had some compliments from agents. I wish we had persevered actually, but the need to make money intervened.

The first thing you need to do is learn how to format the page layout and presentation of your play. There are very strict conventions about font, spacing and stage directions. It’s not hard but you have to get it right. We made our own template in Word, but you can purchase a template if you wish.

I would echo @garyjohn and spent some time working in regional theatre. Most theatres that even have a new writing programme tend to commission writers they know rather than look at unsolicited manuscripts from writers they don’t. So how do you get commissioned in theatre? Build up a profile elsewhere: radio does have a better track record in working with unsolicited scripts. Have a look at the writing sections on The Royal Court Theatre’s website, and subscribe to their writers podcast. A little bit of research now will stop you heading up the myriad of blind alleys: staging requirements, cast sizes, unfashionable genres and so on. Many regional theatres (Birmingham Rep, Manchester Royal Exchange etc) also have writing programmes.

@Twang I mentioned this a few times at the old place. It’s the only thing I’ve ever completed and was done as a personal labour of love but I’ve had some interest in the past. I’ve had some help from Lazybee Scripts http://www.lazybeescripts.co.uk/ which I found really useful. A professional writer from the Del Amitri Facebook page is currently helping me with the script and we hope to do something with it this year but we’ll have to see what happens. I remains a very personal thing but my ego would love to see it performed somewhere. If we do get that far we will need some musical expertise if you’re interested in helping let me know, all are welcome 🙂